UAE names technocrat to lead upcoming UN COP28 climate talks

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates has named a veteran technocrat with experience in both renewable energies and the oil business to be the president of the upcoming United Nations climate negotiations in Dubai. The announcement Thursday naming Sultan al-Jaber highlights the balancing act ahead for this crude-producing nation. Al-Jaber, a trusted confidant of UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, serves as CEO of the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., which pumps some 4 million barrels of crude a day and hopes to expand to 5 million daily. Those revenues fuel the ambitions of this federation of seven sheikhdoms — as well as the production of more of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide that the U.N. negotiations hope to limit.